Cracks in the political establishment

Activists across the political spectrum painted Tuesday’s primary results as a sign of a crumbling political establishment, forecasting an anti-incumbent fervor that could sweep out more lawmakers by November.

Several participants in POLITICO’s Arena pointed to tea party favorite Rand Paul’s win over Trey Grayson in Kentucky’s Republican Senate primary as a key sign that voters are tuning out establishment-backed candidates. Others pointed to Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s (D-Ark.) impending runoff with Lt. Gov. Bill Halter as another example of voters unhappiness with sitting lawmakers.

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“What’s the first thing you know with a high degree of confidence with Rand Paul?” former House Majority Leader and FreedomWorks CEO Dick Armey said in Arena. “He’s not going to go with the establishment. He’s not going to get Potomac Fever.”

“People are mad, but they’re particularly mad at the Senate,” said Jane Hamsher, liberal activist and blogger for firedoglake.com. “It’s the way they comport themselves. They act like a bunch of divas.”

Conservative activist Richard Viguerie, who pioneered the political direct-mail movement, meanwhile called for congressional Republicans to clean house of their leadership, particularly Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio.

“Republican conservatives at the grassroots are like the biblical Jews who are not going to get to the Promised Land until that generation of failed and flawed leaders pass from the scene,” Viguerie said. “Conservatives are frightened and concerned, and we’re not going to get to the political Promised Land until we get new leaders.”

“It’s becoming clearer every day that this is not a year for political insiders,” said Connecticut gubernatorial candidate Ned Lamont, who defeated Joe Lieberman in the Democratic Senate primary in 2006 but then lost the general election to Lieberman when the senator ran as an independent.

Incumbents, knowing that they’re facing an unusually dissatisfied electorate this fall, acknowledged in the Arena that they had their work cut out for them in making their appeal to voters.

“All of us have to understand that our good works don’t speak for themselves,” said Rep. David Price (D-N.C.), who was swept out of office in the 1994 Republican revolution but reclaimed his seat in Congress two years later. “This is the kind of year where there is a lot of anxiety and frustration out in the electorate and a strong sense that the country is not on the right track.”

“This is a big test for Republicans,” added freshman lawmaker Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah). “Do we have the backbone to be the principled adults in the room that can make the tough decisions and transform America?”

At the same time, Price pushed back on the notion that Specter’s loss to Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) and Lincoln’s failure to defeat Halter outright meant the primaries were a clear rebuke of Washington incumbents.

“In both races, you have particular circumstances that you really need [in order] to explain the outcome,” Price said, later adding “I don’t think you can draw very sweeping conclusions from those two races.”